New thinkpad models on sale

The refreshed Thinkpad models T410(s), T510, and W510 appear for sale on the lenovo website. The technical specs are also available and now I can compare between old and new.

T400 -> T410
Newer keyboard that was introduced on T400s: This is good; I like the newer keyboard.
Dimensions remain unchanged: T410 hasn't grown in size; the 9.5 mm optical bay remains. The s versions are now the thinner, sleeker models now.
Graphics: mystery meat NVS3100M that the tech specs say are switchable for T410, T410s and T510, yet if you go to buy the laptops, the T410s doesn't offer discrete right now and the T410 and T510 offer integrated and discrete models with no mention of switchable. I suppose this will change.
Improved camera: a good, long needed change.\
6 Cell battery: It's now flush. That Lenovo could do this while maintaining their double exhaust vents that allow their laptops to stay so cool (competitors are missing this; cf new 16:9 HP workstation and its load temps) is worthy of praise.
More ports: we get display port, one more USB, eSATA, and the headphone jack on the side. Lenovo probably introduced the combo mic/headphone jack to save room; the laptop microphone should suffice I suppose.
16:10: I think this will be the last generation of 16:10 laptops. Very unfortunate. It's good lenovo is able to offer it for another generation.
Expresscard: option shrunk to 34mm only. unfortunate, though smart card reader is available now.
Symmetric screens for those who care.

No mention on top lid materials. Overall, this seems a good improvement. LCD screens are LED only. Personally, I've had no problem with my T400's WSXGA CCFL screen. I once compared it to a Dell E6400 LED screen and found the colors on my screen to be much more vibrant. At that time, I realized what other people with washed out colors were complaining about.

T400s -> T410s
Switchable graphics: now included, though I don't see it for sale.

Since the T400s is so new, there are few changes. I hope for a vibrant LCD screen, but I don't know what sort of screen quality it has.

T500 -> T510
16:9: This is unfortunate for users who value vertical space. On the other hand, Lenovo is able to offer newer LCD screens, including a wide gamut version. The screen gains .2 inches in diagonal to offset some of the physical area loss.
Bigger dimensions: The laptop is overall bigger than the previous generation. Perhaps most unideal is the increase in thickness. The tech specs state a constant 35.8 mm thickness compared to previous 29.7 to 33.5 mm thickness.
eSATA: The T500 already had displayport, but it gains a combination eSATA/USB port. Total USB count is 4.
12.7 mm optical drive: The bigger optical drive probably contributed to the laptop thickness increase. It does allow Lenovo to offer blu-ray drives though. Gain and loss in different areas.
Same graphics as T410 and T410s: Considering how big this laptop is, it should be able to use its larger size to offer better cooling. In the last generation, the T500's display graphics were switchable, with a 128 bit memory interface, allowing decent performance. I fear the T510 is regressing in this area.

It seems to me, the T510 doesn't have any advantage over the T410, except if you want to use a bigger screen. In the last generation, the T500 offered better graphics, but now both T410 and T510 appear to offer the same discrete graphics card.

The tech specs dont' say much about laptop materials. I think the T410 is a great improvement over the T400. The T510, with its forced switch to 16:9, doesn't seem as nice to me. The 15 inch laptop never appealed to me though. It's too bad the existence of switchable graphics is uncertain in some models.

 

Nice summary!

 

I'm having a hard time letting go of 4:3 let alone 16:10. arrghh

 

Glad that I bought my T500 with 16: 10 last Dec.

 

I like the new T410 - it provides many useful ports and fixes many issues with the T400.

I'm kind of put off by the T510's increased thickness, but I suppose this was unavoidable to accommodate a quad core i7 processor in the W510. The port selection is very generous, and the 95% NTSC gamut FHD display is nice plus too.

I'm very disappointed at the lack of switchable graphics, however. That was probably the single largest factor that drove me to buy a T500.

A few nitpicks:
The T510 is beveled as well, I believe 35.8mm is the thickest part.
Blu-Ray was offered in 9.5mm drives in the T400 and T500 for quite a while.

I agree with your final point - the T510 seems to offer relatively minimal advantages over a T410, graphics-wise. The CPU and nice FHD screen options seem to be the differentiating factors now.

 

T510, is the result of interbreeding of R500 and the T400s......

 

If you look at the Lenovo tech spec page - ThinkPad T Series Tech specs - it list switchable graphics for T410, T510 and T410s. Only time will tell if it is missinformation or not

 

Just to add to the above list, the W510 (compared to the W500) now offers 4 DIMM slots for 16GB memory, quad core CPU and better discrete GPU (at the cost of switchable graphics), dual HDD (2 spindles) + optical drive, and all LED screen options. Also, I believe they offered Blu-Ray drives in 9.5mm thickness, as they do exist already. To me, it is better in the respect that you can now put in a 12.5mm 1TB drive to replace the optical drive. Material wise, I read on this forum that the newer line will most likely have more flex due to removal of the magnesium roll cage behind the screen.

 

did they really remove the roll cage? Why?

 

No, they improved it except on the t410 (same as t400 i think)
It's now carbon fiber/fiber glass mix like on the t400s - on the t410s, t510, w510, etc. Probably as strong or stronger than the magnesium.

 

the tabook seems to say ABS plastic for t410 but says the carbon fiber stuff for t510, t410s. now i don't know what's under ABS plastic or if it's still a rigid solution. what we need are reviews and not speculation to find out the actually build quality of the system

 

The W510 has two spindles + optical drive? Is it any larger than the T510?

 

no and no.

 

aren't switchable graphics a built-in feature of the new i5 cpu's? The Lenovo pag referred to mentions either "Integrated Intel® 5" or "switchable NVS3100M 512MB"
Also see:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i5-arrandale,2522-3.html
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2325571,00.asp

Anyway, for many users the new integrated intel gpu will be more than adequate for most things other than gaming...

 

Matt Kohut on his blog said that the only models with roll cage in display cover are T410s and T510 (not T410). But in the newest Personal systems reference document I found the presence of “next generation Thinkpad roll cage (in display cover)” ONLY in T410s.

So where is the truth? Can you corfirm or confute this information please?
Thanks for the answer.

Here is the link to PSRef : http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf

 

T410 says ABS plastic top, CFRP bottom
T410s says CFRP top, GFRP sidewalls, magnesium alloy bottom
T510 GFRP top, CFRP bottom
W510 is same as T510

T410s says next-gen roll cage, like the T400s. The others all say 1-piece magnesium roll cage. Matt Kohut is a secondary source since he is getting information from other people. So we don't know whether the roll cage is still part of the top cover. In any case, what matters is durability and build quality, and this will only be known when reviews are published. T400 is after all, a different type of plastic on the lid.